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About 300 residents of Siya-themba - the newly developed residential area for the relocated former residents of Dingle-ton, staged a protest in front of Kum-ba Iron Ore's resettlement project office situated in Siyathemba on Sunday 12 March 2017. The resi-dents demanded answers from the management of the project.

On 08 February, the community and the management of the project met at the Siyathemba hall to iron out some of the challenges amongst the two parties. The meeting was postponed to 12 February at 14:00 due to unforeseen circumstances. It was anticipated that Mr. Tebogo Sejake and Mr. George Maluleka from the resettlement project will attend the meeting in order to iron out the differences.

On Sunday 12 March 2017 the residents took to the streets and barricaded the road with burning tyres and stones and various other objects after the officials from Kumba failed to appear at the meeting. The protesters were singing struggle songs and mobilized themselves to monitor all movements on the roads.

The angry mob said that they are tired of the empty promises from Kumba. They warned that if they (Kumba) do not avail themselves, then Siyathemba will become a ghost town. One source told Kathu Gazette that they will hold Mr. Sejake hostage till their demands are given attention.

Some protestors said that they are worried about the allocation of funds and the RDP houses, saying that they want clarity on when they are going to be compensated the money Kumba promised. The protest was monitored by heavily armed policemen.

A case of assault was opened after one of the protesters assaulted the reporter of the Kathu Gazette.